*sigh* If you haven’t heard, University of Oklahoma student Samantha Fulnecky filed a report claiming she was being discriminated against because of her religious beliefs after receiving a failing grade on her essay. Now, the internet is in turmoil over the article, which puts Fulnecki’s instructors on paid leave and the hypothetical grade they believe she deserves.
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Let’s start with the fact that this whole situation went viral last week after Charlie Kirk’s organization Turning Point USA shared Fulnecky’s apparent article and her mentor’s alleged feedback on X.
(As of this writing, the post has received nearly 44 million views.)
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According to the Huffington Post, Funecki’s class was asked to respond to “a psychology article about gender stereotypes among middle school students and how they affect their mental health.”
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Instead, Fulnecki’s essay centers on God and the Bible. Her paper included this: “This article discusses the use of teasing by peers as a way to enforce gender norms. I don’t necessarily think this is a problem,” and “It’s diabolical for society to spread the lie that there are multiple genders and that everyone should be who they want to be.”
She also argued that “women naturally want to do women’s things because God created us with women’s desires in mind.”
Fulnecki did not formally cite the Bible as a source but paraphrased her interpretation.
TPUSA also shared apparent feedback on the article from Fulnecki’s mentor, Mel Curth, who the outlet has identified as transgender. In the screenshot, the feedback states:
“I am not deducting points because you have certain beliefs, but I am deducting points because you published a reaction paper that did not answer the question of this assignment, contradicted yourself, made extensive use of personal ideology rather than empirical evidence in science class, and was offensive at times.”
A second teacher reportedly reviewed Funecki’s paper and agreed with Coase’s grade.
Now, the internet is reacting to TPUSA’s post, and they’re not backing down.
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Most people think this article gets the rating it deserves…
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…especially the way it’s written.
“So when a professor gives someone a zero for writing a terrible paper without even trying to adhere to the rubric, the university decides to put that professor on administrative leave for the rest of the semester??? No wonder Oklahoma is ranked No. 1 [among the] U.S. education ranks at the bottom”
They point out that the Bible is not a peer-reviewed source.
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…..Yes…..
“She deserved her loss,” one person said. “If you want to argue for the gender binary, then find some peer-reviewed research to back up your claims. I’m tired of evangelical conservatives encouraging bad scholarship.”
Someone took the liberty to rate this article himself:
MAGA, on the other hand…they sided with Fulnecki.
“It’s time for conservatives to take a stand and show teachers that we will no longer be intimidated by sharing conservative or Christian beliefs on assignments,” TPUSA wrote on Twitter. “The only right thing to do is to fire this professor.”
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“People with psychological problems should not be teaching psychology classes,” another charged. “The students followed the instructions exactly. The professor was both biased and driven by a crazy ideology.”
“This raises serious First Amendment concerns and looks a lot like unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination by a state actor,” others wrote.
Finally: “I wish I could be as brave and committed to the truth as Samantha was in college.”
The situation is currently under review, but the graduate student advisor who provided the grades has been placed on administrative leave, according to a statement from the University of Oklahoma.
What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments.
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